Shocking Technologies, Inc., a developer of a breakthrough polymer nano-composite for protecting electronic products from the effects of electrostatic discharge (ESD), announced that it has opened an expanded production facility, unveiling the world's first manufacturing plant for its Voltage Switchable Dielectric™ (VSD) material.

A ribbon-cutting event featuring Mayor Chuck Reed of the City of San Jose showcased the state of the art lab and equipment that will be used to develop the company's patented Xtstatic™ 100 VSD material. The facility is capable of producing its easy-to-use, non-intrusive material to equip more than 200 million cell phones or other similar products a year.

The XStatic product is embedded in printed circuit boards or semiconductor packaging to significantly increase a product's protection against harmful ESD events. ESD is the "spark," which occurs when a strong electric field creates an ionized conductive channel in the air. This occurrence causes a slight discomfort to people, but will cause severe damage to electronic equipment.

Traditional ESD approaches using discrete surge suppressors typically provide an average of 3% protection for products and consume large amount of PCB or IC real estate. As devices become smaller and more complex, ESD protection is more challenging because of both limited space and device physics. This forces engineers to make trade-offs between reliability, signal integrity and functionality, compromising ESD protection even further. Shocking Technologies' method can ensure up to 100% coverage, while reducing component count, simplifying design, and slashing development time thanks to the highly predictable protection it provides.

"The considerable interest we are seeing from electronic product manufacturers, particularly in handheld and mobile applications, gives us confidence that the investment in this leading-edge facility will enable us to quickly proliferate our XStatic solution," said Lex Kosowsky, president and CEO of Shocking Technologies. "We are excited to begin production in earnest and seeing the cost, time and reliability benefits VSD enables."

Kosowsky thanked the City of San Jose and the city's Redevelopment Agency, which made an investment of $500,000 towards capital equipment. Redevelopment Agency and City staff also helped to facilitate the permitting for the project.

The VSD material has been successfully tested in multiple products and Shocking Technologies is in discussion with the world's leading consumer product manufacturers regarding adoption of its solution. It has also developed relationships with key companies in the supply chain, including EDA software tool providers and PCB manufacturers.